The Tennessee State Capitol, located in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, is the

seat of government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation's Capital city, capital is also seat of its governmen ...

for the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. It serves as the home of both houses of the

Tennessee General Assembly The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Tennessee Senate, Senate and a Tennessee House of Representa ...

–the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

and the

Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...

–and also contains the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

's office. Designed by architect William Strickland (1788–1854) of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and Nashville, it was built between 1845 and 1859 and is one of Nashville's most prominent examples of

Greek Revival architecture Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

. The building, one of 12 state capitols that does not have a dome, was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1970 and named a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1971. The tomb of

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (; November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party, he was an advocate of Jacksonian democracy and ...

, the 11th

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

, is on the capitol grounds.

Description

The Tennessee State Capitol sits atop Capitol Hill, the highest point in Downtown Nashville. It is surrounded by a number of state government buildings, including the Tennessee Supreme Court building for the

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

Grand Division. Directly south of the capitol is Legislative Plaza, a public plaza located between a number of state office buildings. North of the capitol is

Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, commonly known as Bicentennial Mall, is an urban park, urban linear park, linear landscape architecture, landscaped List of Tennessee state parks and natural areas, state park in downtown Nashville, Tennes ...

, a large public park that traces the state's history and geographic features. The Tennessee State Capitol is modeled after an Ionic temple, incorporating

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

architecture, and is composed of limestone quarried from nearby. It measures , and is approximately tall. The north and south porticoes each contain eight Ionic columns, and the east and west porticoes, which do not span the entire length of the structure, contain six. All of the columns are capped by

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

s. On top of the roof is a tall round tower, modeled after the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''Choregos (ancient Greece), choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyram ...

, that sits on a square

pedestal A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

-like structure. The tower contains eight Cornithian columns. The tower is topped by a tall

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

and

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

, which in turn is topped by a flag pole. The building contains three stories. The first floor contains the office of the Governor and other state officials, including cabinet members. The House and Senate chambers are found on the second floor, as well as a room which housed the

Tennessee State Library and Archives The Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA), established in 1854, currently operates as a unit of the Tennessee Department of State. According to the Tennessee Blue Book, the Library and Archives "collects and preserves books and records of h ...

until 1953.

History

Background and planning

When Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state,

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

was its first capital. Over the next thirty years, the seat of government alternated between Kingston, Nashville, Knoxville, and Murfreesboro, before being moved to Nashville in 1826. The 1835 state constitution mandated that the General Assembly choose a permanent capital. In 1843, Nashville was chosen as the capital. On October 7, 1843, the Tennessee General Assembly declared Nashville as the state's permanent capital, and planning for a statehouse began shortly thereafter. The prominent hill on which the capitol would be constructed became known initially as Cedar Knob, and later Campbell's Hill after Judge G. W. Campbell, who owned it at the time. It was previously occupied by the Holy Rosary Cathedral, a

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

which was the first

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church in Nashville. The property had been purchased by the city of Nashville for $30,000, and was conveyed to the state government for $1.

Design and construction

The State Capitol was designed by renowned

architect William Strickland, who modeled it after a Greek Ionic temple. The prominent lantern structure located above the roof line of the Tennessee state capitol is a design based upon the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

that honors the Greek god

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

doing battle with Tyrrhenian pirates. The cornerstone of the Tennessee state capitol was itself laid on July 4, 1845 and the building was completed fourteen years later in 1859. Its final cost was approximately $900,000 (). The

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

has designated the building as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in recognition of its innovative construction, which made unusually extensive use of stone and was an early example of the use of structural iron. Both the interior and exterior are built with

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

from a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

about from the site. Some interior columns were built from single pieces of stone, requiring massive wooden

derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its Guy-wire, guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower ...

s to hoist them into place.

Wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

, instead of wood, was used for the roof

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

es to reduce the building's vulnerability to fire. Commercial,

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

, and

slave labor Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

were used in the project. Fifteen enslaved Black men worked on carving the Capitol's limestone cellar from 1845 to 1847; Nashville stonemason A.G. Payne was paid $18 a month for their labor. It is believed to be "the most significant project where the ennesseestate government rented slave labor". Strickland died five years before the building's completion and was entombed in its northeast wall. His son, F. W. Strickland, supervised completion of the structure. William Strickland also designed the St. Mary's Cathedral (located along the base of the capitol hill), as well as Downtown Presbyterian church located just a few blocks away from the state capitol. The_Tennessee_State_Capitol_building_in_Nashville

The_Tennessee_State_Capitol_building_in_Nashville

Samuel Dold Morgan (1798–1880), chairman of the State Building Commission overseeing the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol, is entombed in the southeast corner near the south entrance.

Monuments

Monuments on the Capitol grounds include statues of two of the three Tennessee residents who served as

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

is represented by ''

'' by Clark Mills, and

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

by a statue by sculptor Jim Gray. The second President from Tennessee,

, is buried in a tomb on the grounds, together with his wife, Sarah Childress Polk. Other monuments on the grounds include the Sgt. Alvin C. York Memorial by

Felix de Weldon Felix Weihs de Weldon (April 12, 1907 – June 3, 2003) was an Austrian sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial, 1954) in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US, and the Natio ...

, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission Memorial, the Sam Davis Memorial at the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds, and the Memorial to Africans during the

Middle Passage The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manu ...

at the southwest corner of Capitol grounds. The Charles Warterfield

Reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

is a group of broken limestone

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

and fragments removed and saved from the State Capitol during the mid-1950s restoration, located near the northern belvedere on Capitol Drive. In 1957, the Capitol building was struck by an F2 tornado. On May 30, 2020, the Sen. Edward Ward Carmack Memorial located above the Motlow Tunnel near the south entrance was toppled by protestors during a demonstration in response to the police

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

. During the Nashville Autonomous Zone the area near where the statue stood has been unofficially claimed by protesters as "Ida B. Wells Plaza", after the anti-lynching advocate whose death had been advocated by Carmack. The building housed a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest between 1978 and 2021. This bust resulted from legislation introduced by Democratic state senator and Sons of Confederate Veterans member

Douglas Henry Douglas Selph "Duck" Henry Jr. (May 18, 1926 – March 5, 2017) was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the longest-serving member of the Tennessee legislature. He was a member of the Tennessee Senate, representing the 21st ...

in 1973, and its presence was controversial since its dedication. Legislation was proposed in 2017 towards moving it to the Tennessee State Museum. The Tennessee Historical Commission voted 25-1 on March 9, 2021, to move the bust to a museum as soon as possible. The bust was removed on July 23, 2021, and was relocated to the Tennessee State Museum three days later. File:Tennessee State Capitol Nighttime.jpg, Night time view of the Capitol File:Andrew Jackson Statue Nashville.jpg, Andrew Jackson Statue located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol File:James Polk Grave.jpg, Tomb of

located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol File:Tennessee Senate 2022l.jpg, Senate chamber in 2022 File:Tennessee House of Representatives 2022f.jpg, House chamber in 2022 File:Tennessee Old Supreme Court Chamber 2022b.jpg, Old Supreme Court Chamber in 2022 File:Tennessee Capitol Library 2022a.jpg, Library in 2022 File:Tennessee State Capitol second floor 2022a.jpg, Second floor corridor in 2022

References

Bibliography

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Citations

External links

Tennessee State Museum
- State Capitol information
Tennessee Legislature WebsiteDocumentary: Tennessee State Capitol - Grounded in Tradition
{{James K. Polk Government buildings completed in 1859 State capitols in the United States Government of Tennessee National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Nashville, Tennessee Greek Revival architecture in Tennessee Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks Government buildings in Tennessee Tourist attractions in Nashville, Tennessee Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Nashville, Tennessee James K. Polk Statues of Andrew Jackson Tombs of presidents of the United States